Where Was The Library Board in 2005?

I walked into the main branch of the Medina Public Library to check out some material. After the very polite woman who was manning the check out counter took care of my materials, she gave me a spiel about how I should contact Governor Strickland and members of the Ohio General Assembly to voice my concern about budget cutbacks. She also gave me a piece of paper that had the phone numbers of Governor Strickland, State Senate Majority Leader Bill Harris, and two State Representatives who I had never heard of and who don't represent Medina County.

This got me to thinking about whether, back in 2005 when the General Assembly enacted a 21% across the board income tax cut, the Medina Library Board protested that action? Did it pass a resolution calling on Taft and the General Assembly not to make those cuts? Did they go on record opposing the cuts? Or did they just assume that those cuts would never impact them?

Right now the State doesn't have the revenue to do what it has done in the past for libraries or anyone else, for that matter. The 21% tax cut, phased in over five years, is costing Ohio about two billion dollars a year in lost tax revenue. We were told, of course, that those tax cuts would bring thousands of jobs into Ohio, which, of course, have yet to materialize. We weren't told, though, that it would end up crippling Ohio's state government.

So, here is my question, what was the library board's position in 2005? If they weren't concerned then, why should I, as a patron, be concerned now?

More BS From John Kasich

There is a Cleveland Plain Dealer article on John Kasich appearing before the Cleveland City Club. According to the article, Kasich wants to eliminate the state's estate tax, phase out the state's income tax, and this will, of course, lead to a fiscal rebirth for Ohio. Oh yes, and the state's budget problems are all Ted Strickland's fault.

Nowhere of course, does he mention the ill advised income tax cut that the Republicans put through in 2005. You know, the one that cut the state income tax by 21%, causing at least a two billion a year drop in revenues. No, Blowhard John just ignores that fact and blames Strickland for the fiscal mess the state government is in.

Expect more of this type of bs from Blowhard John over the next 17 months until the election. Hopefully, after he is defeated, it will cease, but don't count on it.

Ohio News Media Ignores GOP Tax Cuts When Discussing Ohio's Budget Woes

Back in 2003, under the late, unlamented Taft Administration, there were reports about how Ohio was going to run a one billion dollar deficit on its two-year budget. Now, its five years later, and a new Governor, but there are still such reports about how Ohio is in fiscal trouble. There are reports on how this budget crunch is going to impact on local governments.

Surprisingly absent from all these reports, however, is the fact that in 2005 the GOP-controlled General Assembly, in a fit of tax-cutting mania, decided to cut the taxes of all Ohioans by 4.2% each year for five years. In 2005 alone, this meant that the State lost revenue of around $340 million. Over a five year period this works out to a revenue loss of around two billion a year, according to the group Policy Matters Ohio.

Of course, like most Republican tax cuts, this one was geared to help the top. This is from the analysis prepared by Policy Matters Ohio:

The 1 percent of Ohio taxpayers who make at least $274,000 a year with an average income of $643,000 would save an average $8,464 a year if such a change were implemented. This group would receive 23 percent of all the tax savings – more than half again as much as the total amount received by the bottom 60 percent of Ohio taxpayers, who each make less than $43,400 a year. Taxpayers who make less than $16,000 – the bottom 20 percent of taxpayers by income – would save an average of just $12 a year.

While an across-the-board cut may appear to affect taxpayers equally, in fact the most affluent taxpayers would save much more of their income than lower- and middle-income taxpayers. The top 1 percent of taxpayers would save 1.3 percent of their income, while the middle 20 percent would save only 0.5 percent, and the bottom 20 percent just 0.1 percent. That’s because richer Ohioans pay steeper rates under the state’s graduated income tax.

Yet, the media acts like the current fiscal crisis in Ohio is caused by "bad forecasting" and higher fuel prices, to quote from the Cleveland Plain Dealer article linked to above. Now, those things very well may be having an impact, but here is another thought: When you cut the revenue stream of the state by around two billion a year during bad economic times in the state, you are going to have big fiscal problems.

We suspect that the news media is covering this angle because Governor Ted Strickland isn't talking about it. We suspect that Strickland isn't talking about it because he wants to get re-elected in 2010 and because the Democrats are within four or five votes of taking back the Ohio House. Those of us over 50 remember full well the way the Republicans used the so-called Celeste tax increase in 1984 to take the Ohio Senate.

The fact that Strickland isn't talking about the effects of the 2005 tax reduction by the GOP doesn't mean, however, that the media can't talk about it. It also doesn't mean that Democrats in local government positions can't talk about it. We suspect that Republican local officials will try to ignore the role the Ohio GOP General Assembly had in making this problem. We shouldn't let them.

Ohio Republican Hypocrisy

If you click on the link in this entry's title you can read about how the GOP House Speaker Husted and the incoming Ohio GOP Chair Dewine want to cut 22 million out of Gov. Strickland's proposed budget for economic development but also want to earmark 9 million additional dollars for economic development for the Dayton area, where, gee, both of them come from.

As Gov. Strickland points out, it doesn't make a a lot of sense to be cutting funds for economic development in a state that is bleeding jobs. It is also inconsistent to cut funds out of the state budget for economic development for the whole state but then add funds for economic development for one area of the state.

As we have commented before, former GOP Governor Jim Rhodes used to talk about "jobs and progress" in the 1960s. This current group of GOP leaders want to talk about "guns and gays", except, of course, if the jobs are in their areas. Just another example of GOP hypocrisy.